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John Spacey, December 25, 2020 updated on January 15, 2021
Liberal is a political philosophy that values rights and freedoms. This often includes strong support for individualism, capitalism, democracy, secularism, free markets, free trade and globalization. The opposite of liberal includes those who have other political priorities and views such as stability, tradition and religion. Liberal is also the opposite of socialism that calls for collectivism. The following are common antonyms of liberal.
authoritarian | autocratic | collectivist | communist | conservative | conventional | despotic | dictatorial | draconian | ethnocentric | fundamentalist | illiberal | imperialistic | isolationist | leninist | marxist | megalomaniac | nationalistic | old guard | old-fashioned | orthodox | paternalistic | prescriptive | puritanical | reactionary | rightist | socialist | totalitarian | traditionalist | undemocratic | xenophobic |
NotesPaternalism is the tendency for states to regulate every aspect of life such that freedom is diminished. It is common for parties and governments that are heavily paternalistic to mislabel themselves liberal.Progressives may support both the expansion and removal of rights and freedoms. As such, progressive isn't synonymous with liberal. For example, historically American progressives pushed for Prohibition that took away the freedom to consume alcohol.Socialism is collectivist and calls for the removal of economic freedoms but is often mislabeled liberal.An individual could be consistently both conservative and liberal. Conservatives seek stability. If a society is already liberal, than stability could be liberal.The most direct antonyms of liberal are illiberal, authoritarian, paternalistic and collectivist.Depending on the time and place, the term "liberal" gets attached to a large number of positions that may have nothing to do with liberal values or that are actively opposed to liberal values that revolve around the freedom of the individual to pursue happiness as they see it.
Politics
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The definition of ideology with a list of examples.
An overview of the basic types of socialism.
The common types of historical analysis.
The definition of imperialism with examples.
The basic characteristics of liberalism with comparisons to other political ideologies.
The definition of conservatism with examples.
An overview of the cold war.
The definition of progressivism with examples.
An overview of reactionary politics with examples and comparisons.
A list of things that could be considered political.
The definition of institution with examples.
The definition of nation with a list of the basic characteristics of nations.
The definition of populism with examples.
An overview of common political ideologies.
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